It now seems that the European Court of Justice has ruled that airline passengers who are delayed by more than three hours should be given some kind of compensation for their flights as if it was canceled. Under this huge judgment, passengers who see their flights delayed can now receive between €250 and €600. This is the same amount of compensation that is seen when a flight gets canceled.

The European Court of Justice said that they have made this ruling for delayed flights, because a delayed flight is a comparable situation to those that are canceled, at least in terms of lost time. They went on to say that there is no kind of justification for treating passengers whose flights are delayed any differently when they reach their final destination three hours or more later than scheduled.

It appears that airlines are only able to refuse to pay this compensation if the delay was caused by extraordinary circumstances beyond their control. However, this does not include technical problems with a plane. Under the current European Union legislation, if the flight is delayed by more than five hours or canceled completely, passengers can demand a full refund. Passengers under this five hour threshold are entitled to a meal, a phone call and, if needed, a hotel room overnight.

Of course, airlines have come back and attacked this judgment. One airline even noted that the idea that a technical fault is within an airline’s control is absurd. They noted, if it was within an airline’s control, then it would have been scheduled.